


Strangers In The Night

by gloriouswhisperstyphoon



Series: stars fading but I linger on [2]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - World War 2, Bletchley Park, F/M, Kinda Lowkey Smutty, The Author Has Thoughts On The Aftermath Of War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 03:12:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16109582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gloriouswhisperstyphoon/pseuds/gloriouswhisperstyphoon
Summary: The war always has to come to an end, like it or not, and those involved must move on afterwards.Or: the effects of World War 2, following VE Day, as seen through the eyes of women of Bletchley Park as they attempt to move past it.





	Strangers In The Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [imsfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imsfire/gifts).



The years of the war passed by in a series of forgotten moments. 

Leia, with her typewriter, her hair twisted up into elaborate hairstyles by her mother in the few moments they could snatch to themselves.

Shara received a series of letters from the English countryside, with their contents and the photographs in them spilling out. She kept them in her handbag and smiled every time she caught sight of them. 

Jyn held onto every hidden moment in the darkness, dreaming of an end to the war and the harbours of Copenhagen as she had seen them in her youth. She gritted her teeth and kept her head down, deep in her codes. The war  _ had  _ to end. 

Padme and Mon Mothma walked along the rows of women in the huts, watching their defiant faces as planes roared overhead and the blackout curtains were hung and never came down. The end was coming. They just had to breathe deep and carry on.

And then it happened. 

On a sunny April day in 1945, they were gathered to hear an announcement over the radio that the war was over. 

Jyn let out a shriek of pure joy before swinging her arms around Leia, Shara coming crashing into them as the tears fell and their mouths were too full of joy and of relief and  _ the war is over, it’s all over _ to think straight. 

The air rang with cheers and they were caught in the brilliant effervescent bubble of happiness around them.

  
  
  
  


_ The fundamental things apply _

_ As time goes by _

  
  
  


 

It was a rainy Tuesday when Leia Organa closed her typewriter before wrapping her coat tighter around herself as she looked at the fruit of her labour for the last three years going up in flames in front of her.

The fires sputtered on the front lawns of Bletchley Park and she walked out to her billet for the last time as the rain came down in a light haze around her. 

On the porch, she could see Jyn buttoning her coat up for the last time, and Shara tucked her hair under her hat again before they all stood on the threshold, ready to leave. She could see Winter out on the drive in front of them, her face downcast, who had never quite been the same after she had gotten the news about her father’s death out on the front. 

The walk down the drive passed in absolute silence as the other women from the huts closed their typewriters and went out into the real world, towards an uncertain future. 

Officially, none of them had ever met. 

She licked her lips. “So, what’s going to become of you?”

Shara’s face broke into a brilliant smile. “I’m going to kiss my son hello, then my husband and then I’m going to buy a plane. If that doesn’t work, maybe university.”

Jyn shrugged. “London.”

“You’re not going to tell us more?” Shara grinned, nudging Jyn in the side. Jyn levelled a calm and emotionless look at her. “All right, then. Leia? Plans?”   


“I’m going to take a train to London. Someone’s gotta help clean up the messes from the war.” She shrugged. “Might as well be me.”

Jyn squared her shoulders and stuck out her hand. “Right, ladies. It’s been an honour to know you.”

They all shook hands and walked off their separate ways. The war would never speak of them and their honour again. Their war stories would be an empty space, a footnote in a history book, if they were lucky. 

  
  
  
  


_ And when two lovers woo _

_ They still say "I love you" _

  
  


 

It was raining when Jyn arrived home to her tiny flat after a long day spent typing and making tea while her bosses called her a ‘good girl’. 

She had barely managed to sit herself down with a cup of tea, a gift from Padme when when the Bletchley girls had all been scattered to the wind and a letter from Shara, when there was a series of nervous knocks at the door. 

The door opened to reveal a telltale uniform standing on her front step, his hand hovering above where the door knocker would have been, his weight moving from foot to foot. For a moment, she stood there confused at what he was doing her, on her doorstep, that she thought she was dreaming or that she was in an absolute daze. 

Jyn didn’t run to him, or throw herself into his arms. Instead, she just smiled and let him move closer, feeling the heat of his hands on her waist. 

His lips were soft against her own and she could feel the smile against her own lips. Her hand moved of its own accord up to his neck where her crystal rested against his throat. His heart beat softly under her hand and she leaned in close. 

“How long are you on leave for this time, Cassian?” she said, cocking her head coquettishly. 

He kissed her deeply. “Not on leave.”

She pulled herself back, Cassian chasing her lips. “What do you mean that you’re not on leave, Cassian?”

Cassian grinned, that big gentle smile that she’d first seen in the flickering light of the dying street lamp that had made her fall in love with him to start with. “I gave them my papers. I’m home now.”

  
  
  
  
  


\---

  
  
  
  


 

In her tiny room, she pushed him down onto a chair, and climbed into his lap, her tea lying forgotten on the table next to them. His hands were warm against her bare skin, almost as though she would be burned up from the inside out. Her heart was beating hard in her chest as she felt the nerves and desire pounding within her.

Cassian looked up at her, an indescribable emotion playing on the planes of his face. “You alright, Jyn?”

She smiled down at him, lust and desire fighting with her own urges to take this slowly, before she leaned down and kissed him, biting down hard on his bottom lip. 

Her hands started to rove under his shirt as he started to mouth at her breast, his mouth open and wet and sucking what she knew would be a bruise by tomorrow. Her hand went to his face as she started to grind down on his lap. 

She tilted his face up to look at her properly. “You can look at me, Cassian. Nothing else. Just you and me, now.”

Cassian nodded, desire writ plain on his face. His hands moved deftly over her shirt, undoing the buttons and Jyn could feel the cool air against her skin as he slid it off, soon replaced by the feeling of his kisses against her chest. 

His lips brushed against her nipple teasingly and she could feel it stiffen in his mouth and she let out a sharp cry, shuddering at the sensation. 

She rocked against hip and he let out a short grunt, before whispering into her ear and sliding his hands underneath her. “Can I take you to bed?” 

Jyn nodded into his neck, before she felt his hands tighten underneath her thighs and herself being lifted up, harder against him. 

It was the work of a moment to carry her from the chair over to the bed, his rough shirt rubbing against her skin. Her hands batted at his chest once she felt the solid mattress under her legs, yanking at his shirttails, pulling his weight fully over her. 

She needed more, more,  _ more. _

His eyes darkened when he took in the full sight of her spread out on her bed and something flickered over his face. He licked his lips. “Jyn,” he said, his voice faltering. “You’re so beautiful -”

Jyn shook her head slightly, feeling tears pricking at the corner of her eyes before she pulled him closer to her, kissing the words off his lips.

Her kiss told him  _ I love you _ and  _ you came back _ and  _ you are my home now _ and she could taste the salt tang of tears, but hers or his, she couldn’t tell. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she felt -

Cassian’s hand slid down her body, inching ever closer to where she wanted him most and then she felt that there was nothing else to be said at all. 

  
  
  
  


_ On that you can rely _

_ No matter what the future brings _

_ As time goes by _

  
  


 

Padme stood at the edge of Trafalgar Square, feeling the empty eyes of Nelson’s lions watching over her head as she stared at the tiny picture in her hand, its edges old and worn from decades of being handled. 

From the sepia surface, a man and a woman stared out, the man the person she had once loved, the smiling, laughing soul of Anakin Skywalker. Next to him, sat a woman, Padme Amidala before time had ravaged her and war had torn her asunder. 

She pursed her lips, folding her hand over it.

There was a telltale clicking of heels next to her and she barely registered the sound. Mon Mothma’s soft voice spoke next to her. “We did it, Padme.”

She could hear a woman’s voice speak back, but hardly realised it was her own. “We did it, Mon. But at what cost.”

A hand rested lightly on her shoulder. “They did it, Padme. Those girls that you brought to Bletchley. They did it.”

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes and she wiped them away with the back of her hands. “Is it such a terrible thing to love a monster?”

“You know, you don’t have to blame yourself for what happened. You loved the man he was, not the man he became.”

She tightened her lips. 

The war might be over, but she could never show weakness.

Straighten her back, suck in another shaky breath. 

They stood there in silence for a long while before the sun came out from behind the clouds and a loud cry of joy went out from the crowd. 

Mon’s voice was soft. “Want to see what’s going on?”

Distantly, she could feel herself nodding. 

Their path was smooth through the crowd, their combined aura of confidence and authority clearing the way for them, before they reached a small pocket of the crowd just in front of the Column, where a dark-haired man was dipping a woman as they laughed and kissed.

Their peals of laughter were loud and familiar. When they pulled away, Padme realised who it was and she smiled at Jyn Erso, who was grinning more than she’d ever seen before as she kissed her soldier while he swung her around.

_ She could still feel the cool waters of Lake Como against her feet and the warmth of Anakin’s skin against her own as they watched the sun rise over the waters.  _

She unclenched her fist to reveal the crumpled photograph that she had still managed to hang onto, despite everything. 

Padme pointed to the Column proper, where a group of people appeared to be touching the cool surface of the marble. “Mon, what are they doing over there, do you know?”

“They’re putting up photographs of those who died,” Mon said, with a pointed look at Padme’s hand. 

The marble was solid against her hand as she tacked the photograph to Nelson’s column, her back straight and her face calm as she did so. Her hand touched the faces of the man and the woman in the photo, mourning everything that she had lost, everything she had gained and everything that would never be. 

The faces stared out at the rest of the world, as she went back over to Mothma, looping her arm into hers.

She licked her lips, trying to choose the words. “You know, Mon. I think that the kids will be alright after all.”

Mon’s smile grew even wider. “They’ll be alright.”

Padme felt a smile grow on her face and she didn’t fight it as they walked into the rest of their lives. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much, Ims! 
> 
> You've been an amazing friend and I owe you more than a hastily written fic for everything you've done for me - the emotional advice, the hugs and the geographic help as you didn't ask why I was asking how to hide a body if I were in the Kent Marshes.


End file.
